They’re on their sixth straight playoff run. They won a Stanley Cup two springs ago. They’re the more experienced team, veteran laden, battle hardened.

All of that stuff is true. So why is it that, as the Boston Bruins drag themselves home for a Monday night Game 7 with the resurgent Maple Leafs, it’s the Bruins who are suddenly looking like the team that’s never been here before?

Why is it that the Bruins are on a two-game losing streak in the wake of Sunday’s Game 6, where the Air Canada Centre hailed a 2-1 Toronto victory? Why is it that Boston’s depleted defensive corps — without the services of the injured Andrew Ference on Sunday night — is suddenly bending and breaking under the incessant pressure of Toronto’s swift forward lines?

Perhaps it’s this: The Bruins, who bowed out of the playoffs in a first-round Game 7 a year ago, are having an awfully hard time living up to the unrealistic expectations set by their hoisting of the Cup in 2011. Tim Thomas, the Facebook-manifesto-writing goaltender who stole that Cup before he disappeared into his bunker, will tell you it’s your right as an INDIVIDUAL to believe that theory or not.

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But definitely believe this: The Bruins are feeling the boil of their latest dance to the edge of playoff oblivion. Having long said goodbye to their 3-1 series lead, they’re now adding weight to their well-earned reputation for blowing through closeout opportunities as often as Thomas clicks the caps lock key.

“We’ve been a Jekyll and Hyde hockey club all year. That’s what you’re seeing right now,” Boston coach Claude Julien said Sunday.

For long stretches on Sunday night, when Boston was out-worked and out-chanced and out-quicked by the Leafs, the not-so-good side of the Bruins’ split personality was on display. Late Sunday night the club issued a release that said it’d be staying in Toronto on Sunday night because of a “malfunction” with its charter plane. If only they could hire a technician to fix their first line.

Perhaps nobody is wearing the burden of Boston’s squandered opportunity more than the trio of Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand. Those players were three of Boston’s top four scorers during the regular season. But they’ll leave Toronto on Monday morning with precisely three points among them in six playoff games — a stat duly noted by no end of New England media types.

“We take a lot of heat because of the expectations of our hockey club,” Claude Julien was saying after Sunday’s morning skate.

It isn’t just nasty scribes and broadcasters piling on. Julien expressed his displeasure with the line’s play after Game 5. And Sunday’s first-period ice-time numbers shed some light on his opinion of their work in the early going. Marchand, for instance, logged three minutes and 49 seconds in the opening 20 minutes; that was a number that put him on par with fourth-liners Gregory Campbell and Dan Paille.

The truth was that Boston’s fourth line probably deserved more time. The trio of Paille, Campbell and Shawn Thornton managed to command possession for considerable stretches at times.

The Bergeron-Marchand-Seguin line, in contrast, played with no obvious purpose much of the evening. When Marchand coasted to the bench on an early second period line change, Julien appeared to direct some words of displeasure in his direction.

When asked for his opinion of the unit’s play after the game, Julien got short: “I have no comment on my lines.”

The Bruins had their chances on Sunday night. Defenceman Johnny Boychuk hit the post early in the second period. Bergeron was robbed by James Reimer on a wraparound a while later, then stopped on a one-timer with a timely pad. And Milan Lucic banged one in with 26 seconds left to make it 2-1.

But Toronto did its damage earlier. And after Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf scored the ice-breaking goal in the third period’s opening two minutes, the Bruins reeled. Toronto’s pressure was relentless. Boston, not for the first time in the series, looked like the team that hadn’t been here before. Phil Kessel’s goal nine minutes into the third only underlined the visitors’ panic-stricken countenance.

“Usually we’re a good third-period team,” Boston defenceman Dennis Seidenberg said. “But we didn’t play smart enough. Too many times we turned pucks over at both ends. We have to be smarter.”

A demand for “desperate hockey” was Sunday’s mantra in both dressing rooms. Julien was asked before the game for his definition of the term.

“You need everybody, with no exceptions, to respect the game plan and go out there and execute,” he said.

Julien didn’t get what he wanted on Sunday night. It wasn’t the first time he has asked and not received. Why is it that the Bruins have refused to respond to their long-time coach’s prodding? If the black and gold isn’t still in the playoffs late Monday night, that’ll be a salient question in Boston, indeed. As it is, the Bruins’ top two lines have produced all of one goal and one assist combined in Toronto’s past two wins.

“Again, I’m not talking about (certain lines), I’m talking about our whole team, the Jekyll and Hyde hockey club,” Julien said. “You see when we play well how good we can be.”

Apparently torn between playing well and playing abysmally, this anguished Bruins team will see how good it is soon enough. If you’re into omens, consider this: The latest musical production of the Jekyll and Hyde closed early on Sunday after poor reviews and indifferent audience feedback. In other words, it suffered Broadway’s version of a first-round knockout.

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